1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for encrypting and decrypting data stored in a disk drive of a storage.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a storage that manages data stored in a plurality of disk drives that structures the storage, there has been a need to improve data security. In response to this, the data stored in the disk drives have been encrypted.
For example, a technique related to an encryption apparatus for encrypting data in the disk drive is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-127061. The disclosed encryption apparatus is provided outside of the disk drive (storage). The encryption apparatus reads data stored in the disk drive to perform encrypting or decrypting, upon reception of an instruction to encrypt or decrypt the data from a user, and returns the encrypted or decrypted data to the disk drive.
In the conventional technique, however, because the encryption apparatus reads the data in the disk drive and then encrypts or decrypts the read data, it takes time to read the data in the disk drive. Accordingly, it takes time to encrypt or decrypt the data, and read/write requests from a host to the disk drive stagnate.